Alright, we'd like to have you open your
Bibles to 1st Timothy 2.
If you're joining us for the first time,
welcome, and we are currently studying together through
Paul's 1st epistle to Timothy, picking up tonight
in the 2nd chapter and the 1st verse.
Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus with the
charge of keeping the church from getting off
track.
He had told Timothy to exhort them to
teach no other doctrine, nor to give heed
to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes
rather than godly edification, which is in the
faith.
And so he more or less began with
sort of a negative bit of instruction, things
that they were not to do.
Timothy was to warn them, don't do these
things, don't get off track and get caught
up in these disputes and arguments and things
that don't really build people up in the
faith.
Now, as we come to chapter two, he
looks at things from the positive side in
that he gives him instruction on what they
are to do.
And so he says, therefore, I exhort, first
of all, that supplications, prayers, intercession and giving
of things be made for all men.
Notice that the first thing Paul says as
far as what the church ought to be
doing is praying.
Top priority in the Church of Jesus Christ
is prayer.
That really ought to be at the top
of our list as individual Christians, and it
ought to be at the top of our
list as believers collectively.
Now, Paul is giving instruction to the believers
as they assemble together.
And Paul is telling them when you get
together, make prayer a priority.
You know, Jesus said something interesting in regard
to the temple, but I think it definitely
has application to the church as well.
He was quoting Jeremiah and he referred to
the temple as a house of prayer for
all nations.
He said, my house shall be called a
house of prayer for all nations.
And that's true of the church as well.
We are to be a people of prayer.
And tonight we're going to be looking at
praying and praying specifically for some of the
things that we've already mentioned here tonight, praying
for government, praying for our leaders, praying for
our nation, praying for the world.
But, you know, that's the thing that we
need to be doing more than anything else,
not that we don't do other things.
We need to do other things as well
as God leads us.
But above and beyond, we need to be
praying because I really won't know exactly what
to do unless I'm praying and getting direction
from the Lord.
I have a friend who has been getting
involved in some different kinds of activities in
his community regarding the whole issue of gay
marriage and sort of standing up in promotion
of marriage as it has been traditionally and
sort of standing up in resistance to the
movement toward gay marriage.
And he was talking to me a while
back and he was urging me to sort
of follow his example in our community and,
you know, to do what he's done up
there, to do it here in our community
here in Southern California.
And I said to him, I said, now,
tell me how you came to the conclusion
that you ought to do this.
And then he proceeded to tell me that
he was in prayer over the issue and
he was really burdened and he was asking
God to give him some direction and show
him how he might be involved in some
way, shape or form.
And then he went to tell me that
immediately after he prayed about it, suddenly his
phone ring.
Somebody asked him if you want to do
this.
And a series of events occurred.
One thing led to another.
And boom, they got this event together.
And I said, you know what?
That is great.
That is wonderful.
And I want to have the same thing
happen to me.
I'm glad you're giving me your advice on
what you think I ought to do.
I appreciate that, but I don't want to
go do that because you told me I
ought to do it.
I want to go do it because God
puts on my heart that I ought to
go do it, because then when I'm out
there doing it and maybe I'm facing opposition
or coming up against unexpected challenges, then I
will know that it's all right.
I need to persevere because God spoke to
me and said, this is what I need
to do.
There are many things that we as Christians
can do and probably should do, but we
have to pray first because we've got to
get direction.
We've got to have wisdom.
We've got to have understanding as we approach
these things.
And so Paul says, I exhort, first of
all, that supplication, prayer, intercession and giving of
things to be made for all men.
Now, as I said, he's talking about what
happens when we gather together collectively as believers.
He's he's instructing Timothy on how to conduct
things in the church.
So as we get together, he says we
ought to be praying.
Now, he uses three different terms for prayer,
supplication, some some other translations say request and
then prayers and then intercessions.
Now, the distinction between these three things is
so minimal that it's not worth it to
go in and try to, you know, really
make a sharp distinction.
I don't think that Paul was so much
saying, you know, that you've got to have
exactly these three things and that there is
some stark contrast between the three of them.
And if you don't have all three, that
your prayers aren't going to be effective.
I think what Paul's doing is he's just
wanting to emphasize the importance of prayer.
And like he said in writing to the
Ephesians, pray with all kinds of prayer.
If it's supplication, if it's request, if it's,
you know, whatever it is, let's just be
praying.
That's the point that he's wanting to make.
But he says also in giving of things
are to be made, first of all, notice
for all men.
For all men.
Now, not all men in the gender sense,
all people is what he's talking about, we're
going to be praying for everyone.
Because as Christians, of course, we're the ones
who have the connection with God through Jesus,
we have the direct line, so to speak.
So we can come to God and we
can pray for things, and and I believe
that it's our duty and responsibility as the
church that we should be praying for all
people in the sense that we would be
praying that God would be saving people, that
God would be pouring out his spirit, that
he would be convicting people of sin, that
he would be opening their eyes and turning
them from darkness to light and from the
power of Satan to God.
That ought to be something that we are
doing regularly as God's people, not being satisfied
with, you know, just what we have going
on in our own midst, but realizing that,
oh, Lord, you you want to bring in
more people.
You died for the whole world, not just
for, you know, this select group that's here
or, you know, the other groups that are
gathered together in different places.
But, Lord, you died for everyone.
And so Paul says that prayer is to
be made for all men and Thanksgiving.
Now, there are lots of people in the
world who do a lot of things that
we benefit from that we don't really even
know or know anything about.
But, you know, just living life, enjoying life,
it's it's all a part of God's providential
blessing, but it's all a part of, you
know, what other people do as well.
And Paul is saying, let's just let's just
be praying for everybody, thanking God for, you
know, those those blessings that we have that
we sometimes don't think through all the way,
but stop and think about anything.
Well, somebody must have done this to get
this to happen.
And this has become a benefit to me.
And this is a blessing.
And, Lord, I thank you for that series
of events that happened and those people that
were involved that brought this blessing into my
life.
Point being, were to be people who are
prayerful and thankful.
But now listen to what he says.
He goes down more specifically.
Prayer is to be made for all men,
for kings and all who were in authority
that we may lead a quiet and peaceful
life in all godliness and reverence.
For this is good and acceptable in the
sight of God, our Savior, who desires all
men to be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to
be testified in due time.
Paul says we're to pray for all men
were to pray for kings and all who
are in authority.
Now, sometimes as believers and I will be
the first to admit that I have had
this dilemma sometimes as a believer, it is
difficult to pray for people in political power
who are wicked people, godless people, people who
are making all the wrong decisions, the bad
decisions, leading the country in the wrong direction.
the wrong direction.
It's hard for me to be passionate about
praying for those kinds of people.
And some people would even say, well, we
don't have to pray for those guys.
You know, they're the bad guys.
We just pray for the good guys, we
pray for our guy that he can get
in.
But, you know, that's not what Paul says.
And I don't think and I've mentioned this
before, but I don't think it was an
accident by any means that the New Testament
was written when it was written and under
the political situation that it was written under.
Because if Paul could and Peter and the
others, Jesus himself rendered a Caesar, what is
Caesars?
If they could admonish us to be submissive
toward government under those circumstances, then it sort
of just tells us that we're to do
that across the board.
Only being accepted when
there's, you know, the government is seeking to
force us to do something that would be
in disobedience to God.
But apart from that, generally speaking, we're into
or to be in submission.
Now, Paul, of course, wrote this while Nero
was in power.
You know, Rome was not a government of
the people, by the people, for the people.
Whatever it began as it by the time
Paul wrote this, it was pretty much a
dictatorship.
And Nero was an incredibly wicked and vile
individual.
Michael Grant, in his book entitled The Twelve
Caesars.
He wrote these things concerning Nero.
Let me quote from him.
Administrative work had never at any time enjoyed
the highest of all priorities among his favorite
occupations, for he was far more interested in
the circus and theater and in singing, acting,
dancing and writing poetry.
He was said to have gone to bed
with not only perfectly normal, good looking young
women, but also with his mother, with men
older than himself and with young boys.
Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii included inscription
by a male prostitute alleging that he personally
had served Nero's lust on four different occasions.
Often he appeared in public in a brilliantly
colored garment, which resembled an amply flowing toga
below the waist and a tunic above it
and was adorned by a garish scarf around
the neck.
Romans sometimes wore clothes of this kind in
the relaxed privacy of holiday occasions, but only
women were ever seen in them in public.
And now Nero had joined their number.
He also liked to sport a kind of
flower patterned mini tunic, a short, unbelted affair
with a frilly Muslim collar.
Nero's final words were.
What a loss I shall be to the
arts or how the National Theater will miss
me.
You know, it's been bad in history, but
I don't think that we've had anything yet
in our history to match this sort of
thing.
This is the guy the apostle says to
pray for.
This is who Paul says to pray for,
pray for kings, who's he talking about?
He's talking about Nero.
He's the one in power.
And Paul actually longed for the opportunity to
meet with him and to share the gospel
with him.
Now, again, as I said, we often struggle.
With.
Praying for those that.
We are in disagreement with politically or morally
or whatever the case, but.
Paul doesn't give us any.
He doesn't give us any way out of
it.
He says this is what we're supposed to
be doing.
I'd like to quote to you from.
None other than John Calvin.
And he says something that I think is
quite fascinating and appropriate in regard to what
we're talking about here tonight.
In commenting on these verses, he said he
mentions kings and other magistrates expressly because the
Christians might have had cause to hate them
more than all others.
All the magistrates of that time were sworn
enemies of Christ so that they might have
concluded that they ought not to pray for
people who were devoting all their power and
wealth to opposing Christ reign, whereas.
For Christians, the extension of that reign is
of all things most desirable, the apostle meets
this difficulty and expressly commands that prayer should
be offered for them.
Human depravity is no reason for not cherishing
something instituted by God.
Government is instituted by God.
That's what he's referring to.
Therefore, since God has appointed magistrates and princes
for the preservation of mankind, however much they
fall short of the divine appointment, we must
not on that account cease to cherish what
belongs to God and to desire its preservation.
That is why believers in whatever country they
live should not only obey the laws and
the behest of the magistrates, but should also,
in their prayers, commend their welfare to God.
Jeremiah said to the Israelites, pray for the
peace of Babylon, for in their peace you
shall have peace.
Therefore, we should not only pray for those
who are already worthy, but we should ask
God to make wicked rulers good.
You see, government is ordained by God and
and the functions of government are ordained by
God and what government needs from the church
primarily is that we be praying for it.
Now, pastors and Paul is addressing these things
to the leadership of the church, pastors are
not to be seen as the enemy of
the government.
Pastors are not to be seen as crusaders
against the government, but quite often that's the
picture that we get.
We see that's not what we're supposed to
be doing.
What we're really supposed to be doing above
everything else as pastors.
As as people who are leading God's people
is leading the church to pray for our
government leaders, because as Paul goes on to
say, he says, for for God desires all
men to be saved.
And to come to the knowledge of the
truth and Paul is, you know, he's writing
about the kings, he's writing about the rulers.
For the most part, these were men without
integrity, without morals.
They were godless men, but Paul says God
desires all men to be saved, even these
guys, you might be tempted.
I have been tempted at times to think
there's no way I'm praying for that guy.
There's no way he could possibly turn around
and, you know, take his whole position and
view and everything else.
But I don't know that.
But I do know this.
I know that God said to pray for
him.
That's what the Lord has called us to
do.
You know, the Apostle Paul, he really set
us a great example.
Paul was brought before magistrates on several occasions.
And the thing that you see with Paul
was that he was always very, very respectful
and gracious to those that were, you know,
basically wicked men.
He was brought before Felix Festus Agrippa.
And if you read.
In the account there in the book of
Acts, you find that each time Paul was
so he was so respectful.
You know, he said, I think I counted
an honor to stand before you today.
He said, oh, most noble Festus, I'm not
mad.
He referred to him as noble and he
treated them respectfully.
And the reason I'm going into this is
because I think that today, a lot of
times it's easy for us to get swept
up in the whole political thing and lose
our Christian testimony to a large degree.
We're not to adopt that mentality that we
find in that political realm.
Obviously, you know this, but in the realm
of politics, there's a lot of contention.
And it's easy for us as Christians to
sort of throw off our Christian demeanor and
just jump right into the thick of the
battle and start slinging mud and everything else,
just like the other guys are doing.
And after all, we feel vindicated for doing
so.
We feel justified because that guy's a wicked
guy.
Be that as it may, that might be
the case, but that's not what we're supposed
to do.
We're supposed to pray.
And I often have wondered.
If we might not.
Have a better reputation in the political realm,
if we spent more time praying for our
leaders and less time criticizing them and condemning
them and trying to, you know, force them
to do things the way we think they
ought to be done.
But if we if we prayed for them,
if they saw us as people who were
not against them, but we're praying for God's
blessing, we're praying for God's work in your
life, we're praying for God's will to be
worked through you, those kinds of things.
You know, a few years back when I
was in New York City, just after.
The September 11th attacks, I was there with
Mike McIntosh.
And we were kind of dispatched into different
parts of the city working with the Red
Cross, and Mike happened to be in this
place where the families were coming.
It was a center where the families were
coming to find out what had happened with
their loved ones.
And, you know, there were all kinds of
photographs on the wall and flowers and everything.
And people were congregating there regularly to sort
of get updated.
And people, of course, at that time were
hoping that there were going to be people
that survived that catastrophe.
But anyway.
One of the persons who visited that particular
area where Mike was stationed was former former
President Bill Clinton.
And Mike was telling me about what happened
when he had that face to face encounter
with him.
And, you know, Mike, as he walked up,
he said, you know, how are you, Mr.
President?
And, you know, thank you for coming.
And he had a conversation with him.
And but but as Mike told me how
he had addressed him and so forth, I
thought, you know, that was right.
It was very respectful.
He gave honor to whom honor was due,
and he treated him very graciously and very
kindly.
Now, I'm sure I can speak for Mike.
I know he didn't agree with the majority
of President Clinton's political views, but nevertheless, he
treated him the way a Christian ought to
treat somebody else.
And I wonder how much trouble the church
has actually brought upon itself throughout history by
trying to control government, usurp authority over the
government or compete with the government.
You know, that has happened over and over
again historically.
And there are reasons I hate to say
this, but it's true.
There are reasons why people have a big
sort of a paranoid.
Perspective on Christians getting into power, there are
there are legitimate historical reasons for that.
Because the church, when it's tried to function
as the government, has been just as oppressive
as the most oppressive governments that the world
has ever known.
That is a hard reality.
And that's why we have got to be
careful.
Because, you know, it's just it's it's it's
something that God has ordained to be separate,
that men try to bring together and it
ends up being disastrous for people.
God has ordained government.
He's ordained the church, but they're two different
things.
They function in two different ways for two
different purposes.
Now, I believe with all my heart that
we as Christian individual people ought to, especially
in the kind of situation that we have.
A government of the people, by the people
and for the people we ought to wisdom
would say we ought to do our best
individually to try to influence our society.
To seek the peace of the nation that
we live in.
By getting involved in the process, but there's
a huge difference between that happening and the
church coming in and trying to take over
the reins of government.
And that's what's happened over the centuries.
You know, when the Bolshevik Revolution took place
in Russia.
And the communists came to power, you know,
what turned them so hostily against the czar
and the whole existing form of government, there
was the fact that the church was the
puppet of the government and the church and
the monarchy oppressed the people.
And they saw themselves as coming in as
liberators of that.
And they began, of course, to persecute Christians
because the church had previously been doing that.
And they didn't make a distinction between true
Christians and false Christians and all that.
Of course, everybody fell under that.
And I'm not, of course, I'm not justifying
what the Bolsheviks did, because, again, they claim
to be liberators, but they proved to be
just as oppressive as the regimes before them.
But the point is this, that they had
lived under an oppressive religious authority for a
long, long time where the people were abused
and taken advantage of and all of those
kinds of things.
And it's happened over and over again.
And we just have to be wise.
We have to be careful.
And we have to look to the scriptures
for what we are to be doing as
believers in this regard.
Now, Paul says that we're to pray for
kings and for all who are in authority
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and reverence.
Government is established so men can live peaceably.
And that's what we're to pray for, that
there would be peace.
And of course, there are times historically when
things become tumultuous.
And what do we do then?
Well, I think we pray more.
We pray more and more and more.
Now, we are in a time when.
We're all interested in what's happening in the
political arena and perhaps.
You're not paying much attention to it, maybe
you're kind of keeping an eye on what's
going on, maybe you're glued to.
The news channels or whatever, because you're so
intrigued by what's going on wherever we are,
we need to be praying.
We need to be praying for God's will.
God's plan, God's purpose to be brought to
pass.
As things happen in the political realm.
Now, I have some ideas that I think
are probably good ideas.
I think that certain candidates are the right
candidates and other candidates are the wrong candidates.
But in the end, you know, I'm not
God and I don't know with absolute certainty
what God wants to do at this stage
in human history.
But this is what I can pray with
my whole heart and never have to worry
about it all.
I can pray, God, I ask that your
will would be done.
Lord, you put the man or the men
or the people you put in power, the
people you want in power for this time
in history, for whatever it is that you're
doing.
See, because we tend to think always that,
you know, we have to have an ideal
political situation in order for everything to function
properly as far as the church goes.
Well, that's not necessarily the case.
You see, as I've said before, and I
want to say it again, the church and
the success of the church is not contingent
upon the political situation.
And if we think it is, we're making
a huge mistake.
You know, quite honestly, there are times I
pray a lot for different parts of the
world.
And, you know, there is not the kind
of freedom that we have here.
And sometimes I find myself in a quandary
as I'm praying for those countries because I'm
thinking, well, if they have the freedom that
we have here, what does that mean?
And we prayed for and saw the opening
up of the former Soviet Union and the
Eastern European nations and all that.
We prayed for all that.
And yes, the door is open.
We've been able to go in with the
gospel and all of that.
And that's been wonderful.
But, you know, a lot of other stuff
has gone in as well.
A lot of other things, a lot of
the filth and everything else that is, you
know, manufactured here in the land of the
free and the home of the brave.
It's being exported.
Much quicker than the gospel.
So sometimes when I'm praying and, you know,
I'm fine, oh, Lord, open the doors, break
that government up, free up the people, I
think, well, you know, Lord, I don't know
if that's exactly what I should be praying.
God, I just pray that you would do
whatever is best.
Because, you know, there are times, of course,
when God allows persecution to come.
We think of Christians being persecuted.
We think, oh, that's the most that's a
horrible thing.
Oh, you know, that should never be happening.
That's not the biblical picture.
From the biblical picture, we understand that persecution
comes sometimes by sovereign.
Divine.
Mandate.
Because God wants to do something fresh, he
wants to do a new work, he wants
to purge his church, he wants to get
people weaned from materialism and from living for
the flesh and all those things.
So all of a sudden, boom, he come.
He allows something to come down in society
to bring people back to himself and to
get their eyes on eternity and off of
the temporal situation.
So, you know, as I'm saying, sometimes we
can just look at something and think, oh,
well, this is wrong and that shouldn't be
that way.
And we need to, you know, get rid
of this kind of a situation.
At the end of the day, I must
confess, I don't know.
What the best thing is a lot of
times.
And so I've got to say, Lord, you
know what's best.
You know what needs to be done.
You know, of course, in China.
Communism has been the the policy for many
years now.
And there are some Christians who think.
The you know, the solution, the best possible
scenario is for communism to collapse, you know,
be overthrown to dissolve from the entire whatever.
But, you know, there are others who say,
well, you know, that's not really what we're
praying about.
I've talked to people that are in it
and say, well, that's not so much what
we're praying about.
We're praying more that God will just keep
building the church.
God will just keep working.
God will keep spreading the gospel regardless of
what the government's doing.
So.
First priority, ladies and gentlemen.
We need to pray.
We need to be praying as God's people.
Praying for those who rule over us, praying
for our leaders, whatever political party they belong
to.
If you're a Republican and a Democrat is
in office, can you pray for them?
Or vice versa, if you're a Democrat and
Republicans in office, can you pray for them?
You see, those are distinctions that we ought
not to make.
I had the greatest experience when I was
living in Britain.
Because, you know, I wasn't a Tory.
I didn't belong to the Labour Party.
I wasn't a social Democrat.
So quite frankly, I didn't care about any
of the parties.
I could just pray freely for whoever was
in power.
But, you know, I must confess that I
have a bit more of a struggle here
than I did there.
But I shouldn't.
I should be able to just pray for
whoever's there.
Now, recently we had mentioned this bill that
was on the desk of our governor, a
bill that seems to imply that there could
be some sort of retribution in the future
against those who would speak out against homosexuality.
And we were urged to write him, fax
him, email him, however else you wanted to
get your opinion across to him, to let
him know that this is not a good
bill.
This is not in the best interest of
the community to sign this bill.
Well, evidently, he didn't get my email because
he signed it.
Either that or he didn't really care what
I had to say about it.
So what do I do now?
Do I send him hate mail?
Do I try to get him recalled?
You know what I do?
You know what we do?
We pray for him.
We pray, God, help this guy open his
eyes, save him.
And Lord, if he's not going to get
saved, restrain him from evil.
And Lord, if he's not going to be
restrained from evil, remove him from power.
And if he's not going to be removed
from power, then God, do whatever you want
to do with him being there.
That's where we end up.
You know, the Bible talks about a judgment
that's coming on the earth, doesn't it?
But you know what it says?
It says it begins first in the house
of God.
That's a scary thing, but it's a reality
because, you know, a lot of decisions that
are being made in the realm of government,
I think, do to some degree indicate that
there's a judgment that's coming.
But have you noticed that the majority of
people don't think in those terms, they don't
care about it, they're not they don't make
the connection, we make the connection.
And we are the ones who initially experience
the pain we suffer.
But that's just exactly what the scripture said.
Judgment will begin first in the house of
God.
It'll touch us first, because most of the
time, we're the only ones who are thinking
about it or care about it.
We're the ones that are concerned.
So what do I do?
Well, we pray.
Let's go on and read through verse eight,
he says, speaking of God, for this is
good and acceptable in the sight of God,
our savior, verse three, who desires all men
to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and there is
one mediator between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus.
Who gave himself a ransom for all to
be testified in due time, for which I
was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I
am speaking the truth in Christ and not
lying, a teacher of the Gentiles.
In faith and truth, I desire, therefore, that
men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without
wrath.
And doubting.
So, again, he says.
Pray, men pray everywhere.
Now, notice that Paul says, I would that
men pray everywhere now, not because women aren't
to pray, but I think Paul intentionally says
this because men are to take the lead
in spiritual things.
Now, the fact of the matter is, unfortunately,
quite often.
It's women who take the lead in spiritual
things.
It's the woman who's saying, oh, honey, could
we just pray with the family, with the
kids?
Oh, sweetheart, could we could we just go
to church and attend the prayer meeting tonight?
Oh, come on, honey, you know, that game's
on, you know, we'll do that next week.
You know, generally it's it's the man who's
dragging his feet.
Paul says.
I desire that men pray everywhere.
Guys, we got to take the lead.
We are to take the lead.
The Church of Jesus Christ.
Is to be led by men.
We're going to talk next in our next
study about the role of women, and I'm
not saying the church is to be led
by men to demean women.
Women certainly have a vital role to play,
but God's called men to take the lead.
We live in a society where men have
abdicated their roles.
They're not taking responsibility.
They're not taking the lead.
We must take the lead in the church.
I did a conference last week in Lynchburg,
Virginia, and I was so thrilled to stand
before 330 men.
And to be able to teach them and
think, yes, Lord, this is great.
These guys, they have families, they have jobs,
they have part in their community.
God bless these guys and use them because
that's what we need.
Men, men praying everywhere.
But notice what he says, lifting up holy
hands.
Now, why does he say lifting up holy
hands?
Well, it was a custom.
Among the Jews to pray with their hands
lifted up, you can find that in the
Psalms.
Of course, I lift my hands unto your
name, Solomon, when he dedicates the temple, he
bows on his knees, he stretches forth his
hands to heaven and he prays.
And so this was a practice among the
Jews, and this became a practice in the
early church.
And as they would lift their hands and
sort of turn their palms toward heaven, it
was an indication that my hands are clean.
And that's why he says lifting up holy
hands.
We can't pray effectively if we have sin
in our lives.
God's ear is not heavy, that he can't
save or God's.
Ear is not heavy, they cannot hear and
his hand or his arm is not shortened,
that he cannot save, but your sins separate
you from God and he will not hear
you.
So we must be lifting up holy hands
if we expect God to hear us.
But then he says we're to do so
without wrath.
In other words, we're to lift up holy
hands, we're to have pure hearts, we're not
to be filled with bitterness, we're not to
be filled with hatred, we're not to have
those kinds of issues in our hearts when
we're praying, because those things will hinder our
ability to pray.
And then it says without wrath and doubting
now doubting.
It's interesting because the word translated doubting in.
The new King James version that I use
and the King James version in the newer
translations, it's actually translated disputing and actually the
word can be translated either way.
So some see it that men are to
lift up holy hands without anger and disputing.
Some see it without anger and without doubting
either way, if it's anger and disputing, it
seems to me like that might be more
of the context, because Paul was warning earlier
about getting into disputes and arguments and getting
caught up in all the wrong things.
He said, that's not what the church is
to be doing.
So I think that that's probably what he's
talking about here.
In other words, he's saying, don't get caught
up in those petty things.
Prayer, that's what we need to be doing.
You know, the crazy thing is the world
so desperately needs the Lord.
But did you know there's a bunch of
Christians just squabbling with each other about non
-essential, stupid things today?
Instead of getting together and lifting up holy
hands in prayer, they're fighting with each other.
My theology is better than your theology and
that kind of thing, that's a waste of
time.
So I think that's probably what Paul was
actually referring to, although doubting would certainly apply
as well, because.
If we're praying and we're not believing that
God's going to do anything we're asking him
to do, then that poses a big problem
as well.
We need to believe the Lord and we
need to be praying in faith that as
I'm asking God, God is going to be
doing the things that I'm asking him for.
But this is what I want to say
as we close tonight.
And we'll probably come back to these verses
and look at him and from a slightly
different point of view, because there's certainly some
really key things that he says here about,
you know, God being the savior of all
men and the one God and one mediator,
we probably ought to spend the whole session
looking at that.
But for our purpose tonight, I want to
finish on this note of our responsibility.
So what are we to do as Christians
in regard to government and the whole political
thing?
Number one, top of the list, we're to
pray.
And as we pray.
We're also to be open to God instructing
us to then do other things as well.
I think that if we don't vote.
We are simply foolish.
That's the best way to put it.
Is it a sin not to vote?
I don't think it's a sin, but it's
stupid because we have something.
That most people historically have not had.
And most people in the world today really
don't have.
We have.
The privilege to be able to influence how
we're governed.
And if we don't take advantage of that,
it's just simply a foolish, foolish thing, because
if we don't take advantage of it, we'll
lose it.
It's as simple as that.
So we ought to do that.
But not only should we do that.
You know, I was watching something.
I was flying somewhere and watching.
A news program and they were interviewing Howard
Dean.
Now, I don't agree with Howard Dean politically,
probably in anything, but I totally agreed with
what he was saying in this interview.
And what he was saying is, you know,
we need to get this nation back on
the right track.
And the only way we're going to do
it, he said, is for the citizens of
this country to get involved in the political
process.
And he said, and voting is at the
bottom of the list.
And basically what he said is you need
to go out and run for office.
You need to go out and involve yourself.
And I think.
That there's a lot to be said.
About that for Christians.
We look at what's happening in our country
and we think this is wrong, this shouldn't
be happening, these kinds of things shouldn't be
even being brought.
Up in our legislative process.
And obviously, even in voting, they don't seem
to care much about what your vote is
on a lot of things.
So what do you do about it?
Well, you got to get in deeper.
You got to get more involved.
And there are certainly.
Examples in the scripture.
Where we see that God places men in
positions in government.
And that is a means of serving God,
because government is ordained by God.
So it's a great place for a Christian
to serve God.
Now, you know, this is pretty much common
knowledge, but what everybody has agreed upon is
the situation is the way it is, because
at a point in time in this country,
Christians decided to vacate the public square.
They decided to just say, you know what?
We're not going to be involved.
This is too corrupt.
It's you know, we're just going to pull
back and kind of live in our own
little world.
Well, after 50 years of doing that, you
see where it's led.
And I would just encourage you tonight.
Those of you that are here, people are
listening by radio.
I don't know what God's plan is for
you, but it could be that you are
a gifted person administratively.
It could be that you have an ability
to think clearly and to know what kind
of policies would be good policies.
It could be that you are able to
get up and to articulate views and to
impact people.
And it could be that with those gifts.
God might want to use you in that
realm.
And so, you know, we have things going
on in the local school districts and so
forth, and we hear things, we think, oh,
that's horrible.
That's terrible.
Well, run for election, get on the school
board and see if you can do something
there.
Oh, well, you know, the city council, man,
they're so wicked.
You know, the stuff they're letting happen in
our community.
Well, be a candidate.
Go out and see if God might put
you in a place like that.
You know, I was just in D.C.
last week and it is amazing to me.
It's a wonderful thing to see how God
uses his people in the political process.
Individual Christians.
And that's a distinction that I want to
make clearly tonight.
The church we do have in this country,
what's called separation of church and state.
And they the reason they did that now,
of course, it's been distorted.
It's not today what it originally was meant
to be when the Constitution was written.
And as you probably know, that term doesn't
even appear in the Constitution, although people are
always talking about, you know, the Constitution's separation
of church and state.
But the way things were set up was
intentional because.
The people who came here from Europe.
Did not want to see repeated in this
country what they had experienced back in their
own country, they did not want a state
religion that was controlling Christianity and basically enforcing
you into a particular denomination and oppressing you
if you did not conform to their denominational
point of view.
That's what they fled from in England.
The nonconformists in England were persecuted by the
state church, the Anglican Church.
And so when they came here, they said,
we don't want that.
We don't want the the church.
The government to establish a state church that
then controls the rest of the churches.
So.
Again, that's where the church has to remember
that, but we make a distinction between the
church as a collective body and individual believers
who are also citizens, who also have rights
and who can be involved in the political
process.
And I'll tell you, I hope and pray
that here in this wonderful state of California,
you know, I never really say anything like
this.
I am a fourth generation Californian.
My wife's a fifth generation Californian.
So we've been here a long time.
And I look at this state that we
live in and I think, man, this place
needs some help.
You know, God's doing some great things in
many ways.
Some of the best churches, the biggest churches
in the country are right here in the
state.
But, man, you look at some of the
crazy stuff that's going on in Sacramento, you
think, how in the world could this happen?
Well, maybe it's because Christian people aren't.
Considering that maybe there's an area that God
might want to use me at here, I
was telling you the story about being in
D.C., but being back there and seeing
friends of mine, people I know who are
believers who through a variety of different ways
are working with and in the government and
seeing the tremendous influence that they're having.
It's a wonderful thing.
It's a beautiful thing.
Now, they're not there, you know, kicking down
the doors and telling people that you shouldn't
do that and you better do that.
And if you do that, we're going to
boycott you.
They're not doing that.
They're just being believers.
They're just loving Jesus and letting their light
so shine before men.
And a friend of mine has worked for
many years for a certain senator.
And she was telling me this past week,
you know, that after all of these years,
this senator who was probably in many ways
a backslidden Christian when she met her.
Now, this this woman is confiding in her
that she feels that her calling at this
stage in her life is to be an
evangelist and she's a senator, but she feels
God's calling her to be an evangelist.
And it's just simply been through the friendship.
And the witness of this gal who's been
there serving.
Quietly, but efficiently, effectively there in the capital.
When I was back there, I met a
number of young young men and women who
were orphans.
And through this particular program, they ended up
working as interns for a number of different
senators in the state.
And some of them that I met were
wonderful young Christian men and women gifted, just
great young men and women.
And they've been helping out.
They help write legislation sometimes and things.
I think, wow, that's a great thing to
encourage young people to be involved in.
So pray.
That's what we need to do as God's
people.
But because we have the opportunity, a unique
opportunity afforded to us, we need to use
wisdom.
And as God leads, we need to be
involved beyond that as well.
And so that's what Paul says.
This is what the church is to be
about.
And I just had this picture in my
mind and I'm closing right now, so.
Don't worry, but I have this picture in
my mind.
You know, I saw I saw this interview
the other night.
And there was a man interviewing, there was
a person who was representing one thing, and
then there was a Christian representing supposedly the
church and Christian people.
And I got to tell you, I was
so embarrassed by what this Christian guy was
saying.
And I just thought, oh, God, help us.
I do not appreciate that man representing me
because he's he's not representing me and he's
not representing the Lord either.
There was all kinds of venom and hatred
and just irrationality coming out of his mouth.
I thought, oh, God, help us.
But in my mind, I think, you know,
going back to Paul, when Paul stood before
Festus, Felix and Agrippa.
They were greatly impressed by him.
They were greatly moved at one point when
he was speaking with.
Felix.
It said that.
Felix was trembling, he was convicted, said, oh,
Paul, go away for a while, come back
later, we'll talk later.
But he was greatly impressed, he kept calling
for Paul.
And when Paul spoke with Agrippa, Agrippa finally
says, Paul, are you trying to persuade me
to be a Christian?
But actually.
What he probably meant.
Was Paul, you've almost persuaded me to be
a Christian and Paul says, I wish that
you were a Christian.
I wish you were just like me, except
for having this chain.
But my point is, there was a great
respect for him because he was respectful, because
he had the proper demeanor of a believer
before these men.
And so there was a respect.
And that's the picture I get in my
mind that if if if we as the
church was seen by.
The political.
Leaders, many of them, if we were seen
as not always being against an antagonistic and
threatening and all of the kinds of things
that we're so often doing, but if we
were seen as praying.
And truly interested in their welfare and truly
committed to seeking God's best for them, I
think that will go a long ways to
maybe change people's minds and have a different
perspective than they do have on the church.